COVID-19 IN NIGERIA: WE SAY NO TO CHINA INTERVENTION

Can the world ever trust China again? Would Nigeria romance with the prime suspect of the current global crisis (COVID-19)? How can we? In 2012 China handed over a fully funded and built headquarters building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to the African Union (AU). A great gesture of friendship and solidarity, perhaps. But not long after, it was alleged to have been bugged, leaking vital, confidential information of the Union to China in faraway Shanghai! True or false, the Union had to change its computer servers to check the alleged mischief. But issues of health are different. Misfiring means losing a life, or even lives. On a national scale, that can amount to thousands. Painful loss. Avoidable loss. The authorities must tread with caution here. Face masks, test kits, ventilators, vaccine and doctors - all from or of China. Hmmmm, caution we must exercise. Until now we have been using our indigenous doctors, and they have been doing well. WHY CHANGE THE WINNING TEAM? Please let us DISCARD this idea of Chinese intervention. WE DON'T NEED IT. Let us stay safe Stay indigenous. Stay Nigerian We shall overcome

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Canada to donate 1,000 doses of experimental Ebola vaccine to West Africa


Canada says it will donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help battle the disease’s outbreak in West Africa.
It comes after the World Health Organisation said it was ethical to use untested drugs on Ebola patients.
However, experts say supplies of both the vaccine and the experimental drug Zmapp are limited and it could take months to develop more supplies.

More than 1,000 people have been killed by the current outbreak.
Canada says between 800 and 1,000 doses of the vaccine, which has only been tested on animals, will be donated to the World Health Organization for use in West Africa.
However, it will keep a small portion of the vaccine for research, and in case it is needed in Canada.
The current outbreak has infected people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
Deputy Head of Canada’s Public Health Agency, Dr Gregory Taylor, said he saw the vaccines as a “global resource”.

He said he had been advised that it would make sense for health care workers to be given the vaccine, given their increased risk of contracting the disease.

Even if Canada releases most of its existing doses, experts warn it could take four to six months to make a quantity large enough to have any real impact at preventing the illness, the BBC’s Lee Carter reports from Toronto.

On Tuesday, the WHO said that in light of scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths, it was “ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention.”

Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.

(BBC)

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